The light of the night sky and the interplanetary medium

Ingham, M. F.

doi:10.1088/0034-4885/34/3/302

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 202 publications

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“…The principal source of illumination for these clouds is the atmosphere itself. Nightglow (e.g., [89]) describes an assortment of photochemical reactions occurring in the upper atmosphere (peaking near the mesopause, around 85-90 km). Here, excited hydroxyl (OH*) molecules near 87 km produce a particularly strong signal within the band pass of the DNB.…”

Section: Nightglowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illuminating the Capabilities of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band

Miller

Straka

Mills³

et al. 2013

Remote Sensing

302

207

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Daytime measurements of reflected sunlight in the visible spectrum have been a staple of Earth-viewing radiometers since the advent of the environmental satellite platform. At night, these same optical-spectrum sensors have traditionally been limited to thermal infrared emission, which contains relatively poor information content for many OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2013, 5 6718 important weather and climate parameters. These deficiencies have limited our ability to characterize the full diurnal behavior and processes of parameters relevant to improved monitoring, understanding and modeling of weather and climate processes. Visible-spectrum light information does exist during the nighttime hours, originating from a wide variety of sources, but its detection requires specialized technology. Such measurements have existed, in a limited way, on USA Department of Defense satellites, but the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, which carries a new Day/Night Band (DNB) radiometer, offers the first quantitative measurements of nocturnal visible and near-infrared light. Here, we demonstrate the expanded potential for nocturnal low-light visible applications enabled by the DNB. Via a combination of terrestrial and extraterrestrial light sources, such observations are always available-expanding many current existing applications while enabling entirely new capabilities. These novel low-light measurements open doors to a wealth of new interdisciplinary research topics while lighting a pathway toward the optimized design of follow-on satellite based low light visible sensors.

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Section: Nightglowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illuminating the Capabilities of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band

Miller

Straka

Mills³

et al. 2013

Remote Sensing

302

207

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“…One other aspect of the L DNB distribution that must be accounted for is airglow [ Ingham , ]. An assortment of chemiluminescent reactions, predominately those involving excited‐state hydroxyls, atomic and molecular oxygen, and atomic sodium, account for emissions in the visible and near‐infrared (stronger), with peak emissions near the mesopause (~87 km).…”

Section: Production Of Ncc From Dnb Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

Suomi NPP VIIRS Imagery evaluation

et al. 2014

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The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) combines the best aspects of both civilian and military heritage instrumentation. VIIRS has improved capabilities over its predecessors: a wider swath width and much higher spatial resolution at swath edge. The VIIRS day-night band (DNB) is sensitive to very low levels of visible light and is capable of detecting low clouds, land surface features, and sea ice at night, in addition to light emissions from both man-made and natural sources. Imagery from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite has been in the checkout process since its launch on 28 October 2011. The ongoing evaluation of VIIRS Imagery helped resolve several imagery-related issues, including missing radiance measurements. In particular, near-constant contrast imagery, derived from the DNB, had a large number of issues to overcome, including numerous missing or blank-fill images and a stray light leakage problem that was only recently resolved via software fixes. In spite of various sensor issues, the VIIRS DNB has added tremendous operational and research value to Suomi NPP. Remarkably, it has been discovered to be sensitive enough to identify clouds even in very low light new moon conditions, using reflected light from the Earth's airglow layer. Impressive examples of the multispectral imaging capabilities are shown to demonstrate its applications for a wide range of operational users. Future members of the Joint Polar Satellite System constellation will also carry and extend the use of VIIRS. Imagery evaluation will continue with these satellites to ensure the quality of imagery for end users.

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“…Airglow emissions are caused by chemiluminescent processes occurring in the upper atmosphere e.g., [14][15][16], predominately from excited hydroxyl (OH*), molecular oxygen (O 2 ), sodium (Na) and atomic oxygen (OI). This signal has been widely utilized to observe AGWs in the Earth's mesopause region by way of ground-based cameras/imagers or even the naked eye since 1970s and 1980s e.g., [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Dual-Satellite Observations of Atmospheric Gravity Waves in Airglow

Yue

Perwitasari

et al. 2019

Atmosphere

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Atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) are among the important energy and momentum transfer mechanisms from the troposphere to the middle and upper atmosphere. Despite their understood importance in governing the structure and dynamics of these regions, mesospheric AGWs remain poorly measured globally, and largely unconstrained in numerical models. Since late 2011, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day–night band (DNB) has observed global AGWs near the mesopause by virtue of its sensitivity to weak emissions of the OH* Meinel bands. The wave features, detectable at 0.75 km spatial resolution across its 3000 km imagery swath, are often confused by the upwelling emission of city lights and clouds reflecting downwelling nightglow. The Ionosphere, Mesosphere, upper Atmosphere and Plasmasphere (IMAP)/ Visible and near-Infrared Spectral Imager (VISI) O2 band, an independent measure of the AGW structures in nightglow based on the International Space Station (ISS) during 2012–2015, contains much less noise from the lower atmosphere. However, VISI offers much coarser resolution of 14–16 km and a narrower swath width of 600 km. Here, we present preliminary results of comparisons between VIIRS/DNB and VISI observations of AGWs, focusing on several concentric AGW events excited by the thunderstorms over Eastern Asia in August 2013. The comparisons point toward suggested improvements for future spaceborne airglow sensor designs targeting AGWs.

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The light of the night sky and the interplanetary medium

Cited by 11 publications

References 202 publications

Illuminating the Capabilities of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band

Illuminating the Capabilities of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band

Suomi NPP VIIRS Imagery evaluation

Preliminary Dual-Satellite Observations of Atmospheric Gravity Waves in Airglow

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